Outline of a Problem Description

1. Outline of a Problem Description In this powerpoint I show how to outline a Problem Description and how to use various Google Search tools to find relevant references that can be used to flesh out the outline.

3. How can car manufacturers redesign the car for less road kill? The Problem Description Explains the Inquiry Question My Inquiry Question

4. §1: A vivid example of a car/animal accident in which the animal is killed, the driver dies or is severely wounded and the car is a loss. [Personal interest paragraph] [Search: Google News Advanced]

5. §1: A vivid example of a car/animal accident in which the animal is killed, the driver dies or is severely wounded and the car is a loss. [Personal interest paragraph] [Search: : Google News Advanced] §2 What is road kill? [Definitional paragraph] [From a dictionary, but written in a narrative format.]

6. §1: A vivid example of a car/animal accident in which the animal is killed, the driver dies or is severely wounded and the car is a loss. [Personal interest paragraph] [Search: Google News Advanced] §2 What is road kill? [Definitional paragraph] [From a dictionary, but written in a narrative format.] §3 Some statistics on road kill in the United Sates. [Facts of the Problem] [Search: Google Advanced, Wikipedia’s references]

7. §1 A vivid example of a car/animal accident in which the animal is killed, the driver dies or is severely wounded and the car is a loss. [Personal interest paragraph] [Search: Google News Advanced] §2 What is road kill? [Definitional paragraph] [From a dictionary, but written in a narrative format.] §3 A description of the relevant core facts, including statistics, on road kill in the United States: which, where, when (season, time of day, right after new development or road is put in), how; historical trends on roadkill. [Facts of the Problem] [Search Google Advanced, Wikipedia’s references] §4 Circumstances under which road kill is more likely. [Causes of the Problem] [Search Google Scholar]

8. Aspects of the problem are relevant to mention to the extent that they can be tied in with other parts of the paper: they can be used to argue that it is an objectionable state of affairs (ethics), or they show pertinent features of the problem that can be used to test whether the offered solution is adequate, etc.

9. §5 Consequences of road kill: endangering people and wildlife, property damage, species extinction, DNA blocker, sorrow among animals for losing their offspring. [Effects of the problem] [I will use a Google (Advanced) Book search]

10. §5 Consequences of road kill: endangering people and wildlife, property damage, species extinction, DNA blocker, sorrow among animals for losing their offspring. [Effects of the problem] [I will use a Google (Advanced) Book search] §6 Reasons the general public does not seem to care about road kill but wildlife experts do. [Paragraph about how various groups view the problem.]

11. §5 Consequences of road kill: endangering people and wildlife, property damage, species extinction, DNA blocker, sorrow among animals for losing their offspring. [Effects of the problem] [I will use a Google (Advanced) Book search] §6 Reasons the general public does not seem to care about road kill but wildlife experts do. [Paragraph about how various groups view the problem.] §7 Animal rights and road kill. [Ethical aspects of problem]

12. §5 Consequences of road kill: endangering people and wildlife, property damage, species extinction, DNA blocker, sorrow among animals for losing their offspring. [Effects of the problem] [I will use a Google (Advanced) Book search] §6 Reasons the general public does not seem to care about road kill but wildlife experts do. [Paragraph about how various group view the problem.] §7 Animal rights and road kill. [Ethical aspects of problem] §8 A biocentric society is more cognizant of its impact on the natural world. Biophilia. [Search Google Books]

13. §9 How the car is a ruthless killing machine. Size, weigh, shape of typical car. How long it takes to stop a car. Safety all focused on passengers in the car, without concern for other cars, pedestrian and wildlife. Here I could use sites as: http://www.howstuffworks.com/ http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us/hr/safefollowingdistance.pdf http://www.unb.ca/transpo/mynet/mty107.htm

14. §9 How the car is a ruthless killing machine. Size, weigh, shape of typical car. How long it takes to stop a car. Safety all focused on passengers in the car, without concern for other cars, pedestrian and wildlife. §10 The car industry, car design.

15. §9 How the car is a ruthless killing machine. Size, weigh, shape of typical car. How long it takes to stop a car. Safety all focused on passengers in the car, without concern for other cars, pedestrian and wildlife. §10 The car industry, car design. §11 The DOT together with the EPA needs to regulate cars for impact on wildlife, esp. in road kill accidents. Doing so would also reduce killing of pedestrians, since they are a form of road kill.

16. §9 How the car is a ruthless killing machine. Size, weigh, shape of typical car. How long it takes to stop a car. Safety all focused on passengers in the car, without concern for other cars, pedestrian and wildlife. Use http://www.howstuffworks.com/ §10 The car industry, car design. §11 The DOT together with the EPA needs to regulate cars for impact on wildlife, esp. in road kill accidents. Doing so would also reduce killing of pedestrians, since they are a form of road kill. What is already regulated by the DOT and how would the regulation fit in?

17. For §1, the personal interest paragraph I will use Google News Advanced Search to search for a newspaper article that describes such an accident. http://news.google.com/advanced_news_search?ned=us

19. Since I am looking for a serious accident story I choose my search terms accordingly, including the term “deer,” thinking that a large mammals as a deer could cause a serious accent:

20. It works:

21. I am kind of lucky here. If I had chosen these search terms my search would have come up empty. The deer apparently got away alive.

22. In that case I could have searched beyond the 30 day limit in the News archive by clicking on the Archive link on the left:

23. Note that there is often a charge for older newspaper articles although you may sometimes get them for free

24. Note that there is often a charge for older newspaper articles although you may sometimes get them for free via the SSU Library using your PIN number.

25. Driver kills horses By RANDI ROSSMANNTHE PRESS DEMOCRAT April 21, 2008 † †† A driver heading into Petaluma early today came upon three horses on Bodega Avenue, hitting and killing two, the CHP reported. Abraham Oceguera, 54, of Petaluma was headed east on the rural thoroughfare at about 12:30 a.m. near Thompson Lane when he saw the horses in his lane, Sgt. Robert Mota said.Oceguera was driving a full-sized van. He struck two of the three animals and they died at the scene. Oceguera complained of chest pain from the collision and five passengers in the van reported no apparent injuries.The owner of the horses was found and he took the remaining animal.

26. The definition §2 I could flesh out as on the following slide, using two dictionaries. The OED is good for first occurrences. In Bibliography I need to add: Inside Out - South West: Monday September 13, 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southwest/series6/roadkill.shtml Viewed April 16, 2008 For a full list how to refer to quoted literature see: http://www.sonoma.edu/users/s/swijtink/teaching/philosophy_101/paper2/dm_paper_referencing.htm

27. “Road kill" is a noun that refers to an animal (or animals, collectively) killed by a vehicle on a road. Vehicles are things used for transporting people or goods, esp. on land, such as a car, truck, or bus or motorcycle (New Oxford American Dictionary). The Oxford English Dictionary defines road kill, also spelled as one word, roadkill, as "The killing of an animal by a vehicle on a road; also, an animal killed in this way." The word apparently came in the language in the late 1970s: " 979 Washington Post 28 Dec. (Weekend section) 40/1 Road kills represent no danger to the deer population, which is larger than it ever has been before. Ibid. I've raised three kids and fed two wives on road-kills." Indeed there are a number of cookbooks on the market with recipes to prepare roadkill dinners (Inside Out - South West: Monday September 13, 2004).”

28. For the statistics to be used in §3, which further fleshes out the facts of the problem I will use a Google Advanced search at http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

29. Which gives me an article from High Country News

30. Which gives me an article from High Country News

31. High Country News is “a nonprofit media organization whose mission is to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the West's land, air, water and inhabitants. We work to create what Wallace Stegner called, “a society to match the scenery”.”

32. And also points out that Wikipedia has an article on Road Kill (of couse! Wikipedia is the largest Encyclopedia ever!) NB Wikipedia is good for a first understanding of any topic, and as a source for references, but cannot - in this project - be used as a quotable source.

33. For §4, Circumstances under which road kill is more likely, which describes causes of road kill, I use Google Scholar Advanced as a search engine: http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search I know that “factors” is a variant of “causes.” Think of the statistical discipline of “factor analysis.”

35. For §5 Consequences of road kill, Effects of the problem, I will use Google Advanced Book search:

37. The results of the search will often allow me to search the books I find and read (some pages of) the book online!

38. For §8 on biocentric society and Biophilia I also use a Book Search.

39. E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia I can search and read online. Wilson coined the term “biophilia.” The search engine ask.com is also worth using here.

40. As I read these search results I may here and there write down paraphrases or copy excerpts for later use in my paper. When I do that it is very important that I always make a note where I found these excerpts or paraphrases. This makes it possible to easily avoid plagiarism, the unacknowledged use of sources.

41. A little trick I use is to past the copied text, or copy the paraphrased text, in a temporary Word document and attach the source as a footnote. In this way, as long as I copy the footnote along, I will also know where the quote will be coming from.

42. Note that the use of footnotes is only temporary. Eventually I will put the footnotes in an alphabetized Bibliography and make an indication in the text.

43. Note also that the text from certain documents, such as books within Google Books search, does not copy. But I can always make a screenshot from that part of the screen and past that picture in the word document. [Apple users: use Control-Shift 4 to create a curser to outline that part of the screen you wish to make a picture of; PC users: what’s your trick?]

44. Besides using Search Engines such as the different Google ones, there is another way of identifying sources: Subject Directories. See what UC Berkeley has to say about them. Also be aware of the "Invisible Web", a.k.a. the "Deep Web” These are dynamically (in response to a search request to a data base) generated pages that search engine crawlers to not access. The Scout Project is an example of an Web Directory that needs to be directly searched. It is a guaranteed source of quality information.